Kitten Impossible...a long story!
My husband had surgery on Tuesday for a huge kidney stone. It was almost an inch in diameter, so they had to go in through his back and grind it up to remove it. I was at the hospital all day Tuesday...left home at 5:30 a.m. and got home after 6.
On the way home, I stopped by my friend's house, who I rehab wildlife with to get some milk to make formulas for the baby possums. She wasn't home, so I called to tell her I was going in the house to get it. When I got in, I saw a box with a baby possum in it, so she had forgotten to tell me, so I called her and told her I got the possum. She said, "There is a kitten too, but you have so much on your hands right now, don't worry about it." I told her I'd go back and get it. She isn't very good at raising raccoons, so I know she wouldn't be good at raising a kitten. It was in a box with baby raccoons.
The little possum was in a box and I started to put the kitten in there until I got home, but the box wasn't very clean, so I wrapped the kitten in a towel in the front seat of my truck. It was newborn...still had the umbilical cord. I didn't think it had much of a chance. I didn't know if it had a chance to nurse it's mother. My friend said it was in a box by the front gate when she got home and it was ice cold. I stopped on the way home at Petsmart and got a bottle and some kitten milk replacer.
When I got home, I had to hurry and feed and water my chickens, which had been cooped up all day. I didn't have any idea I would be gone so long, since my husband's surgery was originally scheduled for 7 a.m. (I didn't realize he had to have a pre-surgery procedure and that pushed his surgery time back.
I fed the horses and donkeys and also the dogs and cats. I guess it took me about 20 minutes. I went to get the kitten....gone. I had left the back glass down on the truck...accidentally and had stopped on the way home to get some fried chicken. James, a wild tom cat, was in the truck, eating the chicken. I didn't know if he had gotten the kitten or what happened to it. I searched all over inside the cab of the truck.
Then I started to hear it cry. Again...searched the cab...under the seats, everywhere. No kitten. It sounded like the crying was coming from outside the truck. I looked underneath and in the bed. Maybe James had grabbed him, jumped out the window and dropped him some how. It was getting dark. I got a flashlight and kept looking....every place I thought he could possibly be. Then I realized the sound was coming from behind the cab of the truck, but not in the bed. I crawled under the truck and about halfway up the outside of the cab was a compartment with louvers...like on a shutter. It was covered by a type of material. I had a hard time getting my hand in such a small space...between the compartment and the bed of the truck, but I was able to get the fabric loose and put my finger in and I could feel the kitten, but the baffles or louvers were only about half an inch apart.
I had no idea what that compartment was, or how he got in there, but I called one of my neighbors who had offered to help me if I needed any help while Jody was in the hospital, so he came down. He couldn't believe the kitten was in there at first. He raised up the seats of the back seat...but the area is sealed off. The tops of the seats, don't fold down.
I got him to crawl under the truck, so he could also see where the kitten was. He (like me) had no idea how the kitten got in there or how to get him out. We finally had to give up. I was very sad. The kitten had stopped crying and I hoped he would die quickly, because I saw no way to get him out, short of taking the truck somewhere and having the bed taken off. Here it was, now about 9 pm at night....a cold front blew in and it started raining. My husband is in the hospital, and I have limited resources because he has been off work for almost two years.
I hated giving up....and I even dreamed about it. In my dream, I got some snips and was able to cut the baffles and get him out. When I woke up....I wished I had thought of that the night before.
I had to go to town to get hay for the donkeys and go to Galveston to see Jody. I called him and he said he wasn't going to get to come home, so not to be in any hurry. I decided to go get something to eat before I drove to Galveston to see him.
All morning, the kitten had been quiet. I assumed he had died. I came out of the restaurant and he was crying. I felt terrible. But, I had dreamed about getting him out by cutting the baffle with some snips, and Home Depot was right there, so I went in, bought some and went to the edge of the parking lot and crawled under the truck. I didn't want to drive home and lay in my driveway, which is shell, and get really muddy, and at Home Depot, at least I was laying on concrete.
I got under the truck and it wasn't as simple as my dream had suggested. Between the bed and the compartment on the back of the cab, there probably wasn't an inch and a half of space and no way could I get the snips in there and open them to cut anything. The kitten had been crying...desperately...sounded like he as dying, but he was quiet again. I had to admit defeat. There was no way I could manage to get him out.
Sadly, I opened the back door to my truck to put the snips on the floor mat......and there lay the kitten! I couldn't believe it.
He was so cold...and limp. I put him under my shirt and started driving home. I turned the heat on in the truck.
I called Mike, who had helped me the night before. I said, "Tell me I'm not going crazy....where was that kitten last night?"
He said he was outside the cab of the truck, and we couldn't figure out how he got in there or how to get him out. I told him "Well, he's out now."
I have no idea how he got in there...or how he got out...but he certainly did. I got him home and put him on a heating pad to finish warming up. I mixed up the milk and with a little trouble, got him to take it. I didn't think he would make it, but
he has done great. I got him Tuesday evening and was able to get him fed about Wednesday at 1 pm. I am keeping him in a box by my bed and get up during the night to feed him, and I think he is going to make it. He is looking good. He takes the bottle really well and just purrs and purrs. He is the sweetest little thing!
I named him Favio. That morning I was driving to town and had a low tire, and stopped at Firestone and a sweet young man named Favio helped me. I told him about the kitten, which I still thought was dead or going to be impossible to get out. I liked the name Favio, so that is what I named him.
These pictures were made when I got home Wednesday, and aren't very good. You can still see the mud on my hand where I had been under the truck with the snips. I'll take better pictures of him soon.
Comments (49)
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